Hey House Cats-

I recently got the opportunity to work with NetZero to test out their Hotspot service.  I will be writing a series of post documenting my experiences with the product. Today’s post will be about my initial thoughts upon receiving the device.

So the above picture displays everything I received in my NetZero care package.  All of that packaging, paperwork, and pageantry made me allot a one hour window dedicated to setting up this device.  To my surprise, it literally took 10 seconds to turn on and connect my gadgets.  The 2 inch LCD screen displayed the Network Name and Password.  All I had to do was plug in the portable USB modem to charge, pressed the power button for 5 seconds, then located the hotspot on my devices and entered in the password.  That was it!!

One extremely cool feature about the NetZer0 modem is that you can use the service while the device is charging.  This feature comes in handy when you are traveling on the road, and need to set up a connection in a pinch on a dead battery.  For those of you who prepare in advance for emergencies… the battery life is around 6 hours.

Going back to the LCD screen; this was the most simple yet awesome display I have ever seen.  Like… anyone from a child on up to a senior citizen can read and understand the displays contents.  It tells you the signal strength, the network you are on, how many people are connected to your device (my favorite aspect of the screen), battery strength, and if you are connected or not.  Another cool feature is your device makes a soft beep whenever you or anyone else connects or losses connection.  This feature is very convenient for the user.  I know from personal experience that sometimes we lose connectivity and waste 1-2 minutes trying to figure out why the page is loading slow.

As this product relates to New York… the greatest city in the world.  My signal is at full strength.  I have tested it in several locations around the city and haven’t had anything less than 5 bars which is something the hotspot on my mobile device is rarely able to pull off.  I am actually thinking about making my cell phone dependent on the NetZero  Hotspot and reducing my data plan with my cell phone carrier.  *shrugs* Why not?!  During New York Fashion Week this device will come in handy…. the space reserved for press is always a mad house.  It will be nice to be able to set up shop in any location with out being a slave to the MBNYFW network.

Well that concludes today’s post.  Next time, I will discuss reliability and convenience. In the meantime, if you are interested in checking out the device for yourself, check it out here.